Beloved part 4
In order to BE loved, you have to SEE love. Because what you see IS what you be. I hear people say things like, "Well... you've just got to take it on faith." As if to say that if you have faith, something will happen. Guys. That's not faith. That's hope. Faith is the EVIDENCE of things hoped for. And faith comes from hearing. Specifically, hearing the Word (LOVE) of God. Faith isn't, "If I believe it, I'll see it." Faith is, "I see it. So now I CAN believe it." That's how Jesus took away the sin (unbelief) of the world--He gave us something (someONE, Himself, LOVE) to believe in. He showed us the Father. He showed us love. When Jesus said, "...I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John 14:6), He wasn't saying "believe in me or else you get the dow elevator to a cosmic prison of fiery torture." He was saying, "You can't know God as Father unless you know yourself as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased." He was saying, "I am the way to the FATHER, the truth about the FATHER, the life of the FATHER." Because that's what happens when the Son grows up and matures... He BECOMES the Father. Jesus said, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). And John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." There is no difference between Father and Son. They are One. Just as there is no difference between living and loving. They are the same thing. Look at this story in Matthew chapter 9, because I think it says what I'm trying to say better than I can: "And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you" (Matthew 9:28-29). Jesus touched their eyes, and connected it to their faith. And then they could see. Their eyes were opened. When Adam ate from the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil) his natural eyes were opened, and his Spiritual eyes were closed. When Jesus reversed the curse He opened our Spiritual eyes again so that we could see things as they truly are. So we could see the Father as He truly is. So we could see GOD as HE truly is--which is love. When your Spiritual eyes are open you can see LOVE clearly. And when you SEE love clearly, you can BE love. Because what you see is what you be. What's inside--what you know and believe is inside--is what comes out. Naturally. Not because you try really hard to force it out, but because you're filled to overflowing with it. Because you couldn't keep it in if you tried. Its too big. And too good. Not too good to be true, but SO good that it MUST be true. Because its the truth. The truth that sets you free and makes you free. That truth that you CAN love because you ARE loved. And that's the Word that produces faith. That's how we walk by faith, and live by faith. We let ourselves BE LOVED by God, and we love one another with that love. We guard our hearts by keeping them open to love. Because out of our hearts flows the issue of life. Which is love. You were created to live a life of love. To live BY loving. To let God love you, and to love others with that same love. But first you have to see it. You have to know it and believe it. You have to receive it so that you can release it!